Glasgow Activities

  • Great Parks & Wonderful Monuments
  • Fantastic Scenery
  • Innovative Escape Games
  • One of UK’s Greatest Music Scenes
  • A Highlander’s Stag & Hen Weekend

Situated along both banks of the River Clyde and just 32 km from that river’s mouth on the Atlantic coast, Glasgow is Scotland’s largest city, occupying much of the lower Clyde valley. A charming amalgam of sophistication and vivacity, Scotland’s biggest city has spread its wings the last decades and transformed into one of Europe’s most intriguing cities.

Victorian buildings mingled with stylish bars, famed restaurants and probably one of the best live-music scenes in UK. Shopping here gains fame by the day, while Glasgow’s interactive museums and numerous attractions promise an educational yet thrilling stay for children and grown-ups alike.

Glasgow is the ultimate destination for certain sports: wakeboarders, skiers and snow – boarders come here and enjoy their favorite activity all year round, along with innovative Escape Games, climbing, or even freefalls facing down a gigantic fan!

ACTIVITIES IN AND NEAR Glasgow Activities

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Things to See & Do

Pollok Country Park

Glasgow’s largest park is home to the famous Pollok House and the celebrated Burrell Collection. Voted as Europe’s Best Park in 2008, it boasts extensive woodlands and its gardens provide a relaxing haven for visitors and beautiful wildlife species. Still, the energetic ones – including children – will find the park equally exiting: there is a play park, a mountain bike circuit, woodland walks, riverside walks and Highland cattle – just ideal for a great day out with the family.

Victoria Park – The Fossil Grove

The Fossil Grove, within the Victoria Park, contains the fossilised stumps of eleven extinct Lepidodendron trees – the remnants of an extensive ancient forest -, and is a popular tourist attraction since it opened for public viewing, from within a building constructed to protect the fossils from the elements. Some of these fossilised trees are 350 million year old!

Kelvingrove Park for Skateboarding

If you feel the need to rest or relax after a busy day of sightseeing, Kelvingrove Park, a classic Victorian park, is your best option. If, on the other hand, is mild exercise you are after, note there are there bowling greens, tennis courts, a skateboard park and children’s play areas.

Sights & Attractions

Glasgow Cathedral & Glasgow City Chambers

A medieval masterpiece and one of Scotland’s greatest monuments, Glasgow Cathedral houses a staggering collection of stained glass. Also known as the “High Kirk of Glasgow” or St Kentigern’s or St Mungo’s Cathedral, it bears the cathedral title purely for honorific and historic reasons. It’s a must for all first – time visitors in Glasgow.  

Glasgow City Chambers is also one of the city’s most iconic and imposing buildings – more of an emblem than a building. Its grandiose splendor tells the story of the wealth and prosperity of the city and is considered one of the most beautiful civic buildings in the UK.

Shopping in Buchanan Street

A beautiful pedestrian boulevard lined with architectural gems and Glasgow’s finest shops. Buchanan Street is considered a hot fashion destination for men and women of style and the best sanitarium for shopping addicts.

A Families Favorite – The Glasgow Science Centre

Equipped with state – of – the – Art interactive technology, the Glasgow Science Centre was primarily designed to instill love for knowledge to the hearts of children and youngsters, by educating while entertaining them!

Bringing science and technology alive by using all sorts of interactive exhibits, the centre has also an IMAX theatre, a rotating 127 metres high observation tower, a planetarium, and a Science Theatre, presenting live science demonstrations.

Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum

A magnificent Victorian building, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a fascinating yet somehow unusual museum, containing a wide range of exhibits. Visitors find exquisite art alongside stuffed animals, exotic weapons beside Spitfire fighters – but all match, in a strange yet fascinating way. Rooms and halls are themed of course, and a small map will put all things in order within your mind.

Scottish Football Museum

Designed to promote Scotland’s unique football heritage and inspire future generations, the Scottish Football Museum is considered one of Glasgow’s leading attractions and is an ideal day out for families, avid football fans that wish to expand their knowledge of Scottish football, housing the most impressive national collection of football related objects around the world!

Indoor & Outdoor Activities

Biking

Actually, one of the best ways to get to know Glasgow and discover its secrets is by joining a biking tour. Besides, Glasgow is a biking – friendly city and bicycles can take you almost anywhere in just a few minutes.

Skiing & Snow-Boarding All Year Round

Being the only year round snow sport resort in Scotland and the longest indoor real snow slope in the UK, Real Snow Slop attracts thousands of ardent skiers of all skill levels and experience with its excellent facilities, dedicated trainers and impeccable service.

Facilities include an instruction slope, a main ski slope, 4 ski lifts, an ice climbing wall (!), an exquisite Bavarian Restaurant, a fun Ice Slide, a Festive Grotto, a nicely landscaped Sledging area and a new Ice Bar. The best thing about it? It’s no more than a 10 minute drive away from Glasgow city centre!

Glasgow Ski & Snowboard Centre is another great option, located in Bellahouston Park, a few minutes away from central Glasgow: 4 modern floodlit dry slopes catering for all sorts of snowsport activities.

Escape Games

Glasgow has its own traditions when it comes to escape games. You and your friends must find a way through a maze or a creepy dungeon by solving puzzles, unwrapping riddles, beating brain teasers, spot and correctly interpret clues and traces. It will take all your observation skills and inductive powers, as well as co-operating with your friends, but you will have the time of your life.

Do You Like Climbing?

Just a few minutes’ drive away from city centre, Climbzone offers all the gear, instruction and proper facilities necessary for a fun day out with family and friends hanging up from ropes and ceilings.

Having the largest freestanding climbing walls in the UK, it offers over 70 climbing routes of varying difficulty for people of almost all ages and certainly for all levels of skill and experience – even for seasoned veterans that need a vertical challenge to feel accomplished.

Apart from rock climbing, the Skypark, a state – of – the – art aerial adventure course, is 60 metres long and hanging 15 metres above the ground, full of obstacles like the zip slide, traverse wall, hanging logs, jigsaw, swinging platforms, cargo net and several other features that promise a couple of hours full of adrenaline boosts and laughs.

If you are still not impressed, then you need to take the “Drop”! A 15 metres freefall for several metres until a gigantic mighty Fan slows you and helps you land gently on the ground.

Playing Golf

Going to Glasgow and not playing golf would be a shame, even if your style is not at its best. Wonderful grassy courses spreading just a few km outside Glasgow are just ideal for a nice morning out with a bunch of friends.

Wakeboarding – The Glasgow Wake Park

Glasgow Wake Park is a System 2.0 wakeboard park, located very close to the city centre, at the Port Dundas Canal, outside the Pinkston Paddle Centre, offering wakeboarders all the necessary equipment and space (including 4 floating obstacles and allowing for varying levels of tricks) to enjoy their favorite sport, all year round.

Being one of the fastest growing watersports, wakeboarding is somewhere between snowboarding and skateboarding. Attached to a cable, you will be able to continuously ride by turning at each end of the basin.

Nightlife

Glasgow is mostly well-known for its fantastic music scene, but this in no way suggests a lack of cozy bars, wild clubs and top-notch restaurants. It is true that the untamed weekend bar and club scene on Sauchiehall Street is not for everyone – especially for conservative families, but there are plenty of great alternatives, especially in the West End around Byres Road and Ashton Lane, in the Merchant City, and on Argyle Street in the Finnieston district.

Whatever the case, Glasgow has some crackers: from fun student parties, to cocktail clubs, whisky tastings and food fun, from the quirky to the classy, Glasgow has this special blend that guarantees a very cool night out.

Celtic Connections

This winter music festival is usually held sometime after New Year’s Eve and is spread in music venues all across the city. From Drygate Brewery, to the Royal Concert Hall and the Old Fruitmarket, more than 2,000 artists play in numerous venues, each year with a different theme.

Stags & Hens

Stags and Hens in Glasgow are similar to the city’s character: a very successful blend of the old and new, of the usual and the ground – breaking.

So, what you can expect is a palette of the standard wild partying options, along with more innovative “dyes”, such as Sky Diving (very popular in Scotland), Speedboat Tours, Casino Royale, Whisky Tasting, Rum Tasting, Aerial Assault Course (a thrilling high ropes session in a dense forest), Cocktail Masterclasses, Chocolate Making and many more.

If you want a more “traditional” stroke, then opt for the notorious “Highland Games”, where you and the lads toss the caber, hurl the haggis and take on the whisky challenges!

Summary

Glasgow is a great metropolis that blends several great characteristics into a genuinely unique destination. Culture, architecture, shopping, family – friendly museums and a great live-music scene all mingle and set the scene for an exciting, fun – packed stay in Scotland’s beating heart. Wakeboarders, climbers skiers and snow – boarders will find the city even more interesting.